Eighty One Levels of Chakra
by Herooftimes
Summary: Naruto hates using the fourth tail, But the the seal is weakened and if he dosen't get control of the Kyuubi's Chakra soon, They both die. And it seems like in the 81 levels of Kyuubi's chakra, the fourth tail is just the 13th...
1. Chapter 1

_**Herooftimes:**_ time to try to get back into the swing of things... here goes

Thanks to Crystalzap for finally getting me to write again

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Naruto shifted and snuggled deeper into the softest red blanket he had ever been graced to feel. All he wanted to do was fall back to sleep, what had woken him up anyway?

**"_Dang human joints, how the heck am I supposed to use these...?"_**

…Of course the blanket just had to be too good to be true. In fact, it wasn't exactly warm now; it was hot, burning even…

Wait, since when had Jiraya ever given him a blanket during this whole training trip?

Naruto opened his eyes.

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Red Chakra blazed around in swirls, placing a red haze on the destruction Naruto saw before him. From what he could see a great battle had gone on, but he could remember any of it, He.. Kyuubi had been fighting someone, but whom?

Then he saw the burning body of a dead frog.

"Ero…what the heck happened…"

Naruto took a step forward only to pass out from exhaustion.

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"**Damn it BOY! I've paid my rent; it was MY turn at the wheel!"**

Naruto sat up slowly in the all too familiar landscape of his mind, shaking off a yawn as if he had woken up from a great sleep. He looked up, expecting to see the seal.

Instead his nose bumped into Kyuubi's.

Naruto leaped to his feel, jumping and back flipping away as far as he could, finally skidding across the ground to a stop, easily having covered several yards in his mad rush.

So it didn't make much sense to him when he felt the hot putrid breath of the Kyuubi blowing down on his back.

"**Interesting..."** The blond boy could _hear _the Kyuubi's lips pull back in a grin as it chuckled with satisfaction **"I've got a bigger foothold in this mindset of yours now."**

"…What do you WANT?! You hurt Ero- Sennin!"

"**I'm moving out."**

"…wait, what?"

"**You're the 'landlord', I'm giving you notice. This tenant's leaving. The amount of my power you pulled out was more than your body could handle, the seal itself took most of the backlash."**

Kyuubi glared down at the boy…with a smile.

"**You're done kid. Its weakening, bit by little bit, until you wont even be able to sneeze without drawing out my power. Every time you draw enough out without being able to handle it, the seal gets even more damaged, letting more power out… a beautiful cycle , eh?"**

Naurto sat down facing the Kyuubi as he thought over this. He faintly remembered pulling out 3 tails, then starting on a fourth, but it was all a blank after that.

"Heh." The blond grinned cheekily at the great fox "If I can already handle almost half your power, it's only a matter of time till I'm strong enough to actually handle all!"

The Kyuubi stared at Naruto in disbelief. There was an awkward silence until Naruto gained the courage to break it.

"What?"

"**Half my power."**

"Yeah!"

"**You think you can wield HALF my power."**

"I'm already at 4 tails!"

"**What's 9 X 9, little boy? No, instead of wasting time, I'll tell you. It's 81."**

"…So?"

"**9 levels with 9 tails each. 9 X 9."**

"What the heck!? Then— "

"**DON'T INTERRUPT." **The Kyuubi's shout blasted Naruto miles across the room, but he somehow still ended up in front of the Kyuubi.

"**You used 6 tails of the first level fighting against that needle boy in the wave land. 9 of the first level against that boy Neji. The first of the second level against the Uchiha."**

Naruto paled as all the moisture was taken from his mouth. He counted on his fingers.

"The fourth tail.. number 13…"

The Kyuubi's grin literally split its face in half, but it healed the split second later.

"**EIGHTY ONE levels of my chakra little boy. And you just hit the 13****th****."**

Naurto backed away on his hands, and this time Kyuubi let him leave, laughing maliciously all the while.

"**Run FASTER little boy, wouldn't want your teacher to DIE on your watch would you?**

As the sounds of Naruto's feet faded, Kyuubi smiled to himself. He watched as a tiny shred of the paper seal fell to the ground and disintegrated.

"**Well, Fourth Hokage…seems all you've managed to do is stall me."**

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Naruto woke up again, this time covered by a white blanket in a hospital bed. He sat up suddenly and felt pain dance across his entire body, grunting as the sensation passed.

"Yo,Naruto."

Jiraiya sat on the side of a bed beside Naruto. He was a mess, bandages criss-crossing all over his chest and stomach, and a tired look in his eyes that finally fit his white hair. Naurto avoided his eyes and looked towards the ground.

"Well..uh…"

"Don't be sorry kid." Jiraiya managed a small smile, "I told you to pull out that much, guess I underestimated just how much that would be."

"Jiraiya..the seal's screwed up."

The white haired pervert moved from his slouching position into a standing one so fast Naruto looked up at the movement.

"What do you mean?"

"Well.. Kyuubi said something about how the seal took the backlash of the power I couldn't handle and soon I'll always be letting out more power than I can handle.. and something about how the 4th tail is 13 out of 81 tails of his power..what happens if I take too much Chakra and the seal breaks?"

"You would die, but.. thankfully.. so would the Kyuubi."

"**WHAT?!"**

Naruto grabbed the side of his head as Kyuubi's voice exploded into existence in his mind.

"**I am NOT going DIE just because your too weak to handle my own power!" **Naruto winced.

"Kyuubi doesn't want to die." The blond boy said.

Jiraiya looked at Naruto in surprise "You can hear him? Even now?"

"**Look little boy, plans have changed, and you better shape up to meet my expectations. Forget that dang perv, he's useless to you if I'm…you're.. dead. I'm taking over your training, lets see if I can make your worthless body a little less worthless."**

"You want to help me?"

Jiraiya looked on confused as Naruto seemed to have a conversation with himself.

"**No. I'm going to help ME. As long as you're not dead I still have a chance of getting out of this sewer."**

"Hey, that's My _mind _your talking about!"

"Uhm.. Naruto…" Jiraiya began.

"**And its MY Chakra that's going to kill you if you don't listen."**

Naruto and Kyuubi were so deeply consumed by there argument that they didn't notice when Jiraiya grabbed Naruto and led him outside of the hospital to an open field.

They did notice however, when Jiraiya dropped Naruto to the ground.

"Ow!"

"**Owch..wait. I felt that?"**

"Naruto!" Jiraiya yelled.

"Whaaat?" Naruto glared up at Jiraiya while rubbing his sore bottom.

"I want you.. to pull out 3 tails of chakra. Right now."

"Ero Sennin!" Naruto exploded"What the heck?!" Why now, you almost died!"

" I know what I'm doing. Three tails, now!"

"**Surely." **Kyuubi smirked.

3 Tails of bubbling red chakra burst into existence behind Naruto, swaying as if controlled by wind. Naruto moved from his position onto all fours as his teeth lengthened into fangs. He struggled to keep his concentration and to not get lost in the haze of Demonic Chakra.

"_Well...ack...what now, you pervert?"_

"You keep up those three tails and…find me."

An instant later the clearing contained only Naruto, Jiraiya had left without a trace.

"_Damn it! How the heck am I supposed to find him like this?"_

"**Oh come on, really boy?"**

"_What do YOU want?"_

"**Get your nose to the ground.." **Kyuubi continued on like an irritated teacher. **"And sniff him out."**

Nose to the ground and three tails high up in the air, Naruto began learning a new and exasperating skill…tracking.

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Kyuubi has much darker plans brewing...

Please Review


	2. Chapter 2

The world was peaceful as the forest enjoyed a merry near quietness known only in nature. The birds dipped and dived through the sky, singing serenely, the animals scurried to and fro on their daily routines, a young fox boy roaring in annoyance as he scorched the ground during his search…

"**No. That's the scent of a squirrel." **Kyuubi said in a tired and annoyed voice. They had been going at this for almost an hour. Any common fox should have been able to find him right now, and Naruto was using, though diluted, the senses of him, greatest of all foxes, the earth shaker, the king of demons, the –

"_Furball who is absorbed in himself. I can hear you, you know."_

"**Tree."**

"_Huh what?"_

Naruto found out what Kyuubi meant as he dashed directly into a tree, falling onto his back as a bruise rapidly appeared and disappeared on his forehead.

"**On one hand, congrats. You found the trail again. On the other hand you've got to keep a better hold on the outside world, even if I'm talking to you.**

"_That's really hard for me!"_

"**My mistake, I was under the impression you were smart enough to **_**walk **_**and **_**think **_**at the same time.**

Naruto gave up the argument, as he was more focused on finding Jiraiya as fast as possible, because he could already feel the Demon Chakra cloak making his whole body go numb, not to mention the constant feeling of being slowly cooked alive.

"_How the heck…" _Naruto winced and stumbled _"Is doing this with three tails supposed to help me?"_

"**Are you really that blind? It's to get your body more used to my Chakra being out."**

"_Well it BURNS like—"_

"**If you're going to be such a baby about it, just make an extra chakra shell. Make a shell of your chakra around yourself, and then draw on my own but push it out and gather it around that shell."**

"_That easy?!"_

Naruto jumped to his feet and dropped the 3 tails state all at once, the immediate rush of exhaustion sending the blonde into a kneeling position where he drew heavy breaths, struggling to keep from passing out.

"**That, my dear moron, was incredibly stupid. You don't just access that much of my Chakra and drop it all at once, you need to go tail by tail."**

"Ok, ok... now.. that chakra shell!"

Naruto shifted his hands into the ram seal and began summoning as much chakra as he could. Blue chakra shimmered into existence around the boy as he kept his eyes closed in concentration. Dropping the ram seal but keeping focus, Naruto looked around at the shapeless mass of Chakra around him.

"..It's not a shell."

"**When you summon my chakra, it makes ears and tails because I shape the shell into my image. I did the work of maintaining the shell, I was even able to attack independently of you with it against the Sharingan boy."**

"I've gotta do it all myself?!"

"**If you let me control you for a bit, I can teach you how, gain you muscle memory, etc."**

"I'm not that stupid! I'll get it eventually, and then you'll just have to sit quiet while I control your chakra!"

"**Chakra. You say it without reverence to the power mine holds. Do not be a fool boy, when you simply accessed the 10****th**** level, the one tail cloak, you regenerated from a fatal wound in SECONDS. The fire jutsus the boy flung at you were batted away as nothing but annoyances; his prediction ability was made near USELESS. Mortal wounds were nothing. Justu were nothing. Water quaked at your touch. You accessed just A TENTH of the full range of my power and I made you almost a GOD."**

"…."

"**Do you understand now the GIFT fate has given you now?"**

"Well, that all sounds pretty overwhelming but…you had all that power… and now you're stuck in my belly button."

"**You know what? I'm done. Find Jiraiya yourself."**

There was a flare of Chakra as the first tail of the Demon Chakra cloak came into existence. Naruto winced slightly.

"Wait, Kyuubi I haven't gotten the chakra cloak thing down yet!"

There was a complete silence in response to Naruto's outburst.

"Kyuubi?"

Nothing.

"Yeah yeah, I'll find Jiraiya…"

Naruto resumed his search for his perverted teacher, this time wholly alone.

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Jiraiya sat atop the limb of a tree, high enough to tower over the other trees in the forest, one leg dangling lazily in midair and his back against the trunk. He made a few adjustments to his bandages and watched as birds scattered from their homes and into the air above the trees as Naruto disturbed the trunks far down on the ground below.

"Wait…did I ever actually teach him tracking?"

Jiraiya contemplated this in silence, and then quickly dismissed the fact that he hadn't as unimportant.

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After twenty more minutes of searching, Naruto dropped to one knee and willed the red chakra to disappear. He attempted to continue his search but instead stumbled and fell hard into a tree trunk, disturbing the birds in the limbs above. He gasped for breath as beads of sweat rolled down the side of his head, making his hair almost damp.

"Ahh..huh..guh..Why the heck does his chakra make me so tired…and where the heck is Jiraiya!"

"**While I would like to wait until you were on your knees in tears, begging for my help, this searching is getting us nowhere. I told you that you needed to get strong and smarter, FAST. Now do what I say. Draw on my chakra."**

Naruto reluctantly did so, feeling slightly rejuvenated as he felt the red power running through his coils.

"**MORE! You'll need the cloak for this!"**

Naruto was silent, and Kyuubi felt no more of his power being called out.

"**What are you waiting fo— "**

"RAH!"

Blue chakra burst into existence around Naruto, immediately clashing with the red Chakra that was already out. Naruto reached out his hands and seemed to grab at both, and latching onto them, hugged them to his chest.

"**What in the world are you…ah."**

Naruto stood, letting out a large breath of air, as two tails of purple chakra swung behind him, and a complete haze of it surrounded him. Every few seconds the cloak would switch from a deep purple to a light purple, to an equal balance between the chakras.

"Oh nothing…" Naruto grinned with sharpened teeth "Just reminding you you're not the only one with chakra."

Kyuubi smirked, **"Well then…you're familiar with the tree climbing exercise. If you push out too much chakra, you're blasted off the tree. Now…we need to see above all these trees. Get it?"**

"Roger that, furball."

With a burst of chakra, Naruto took to the skies.

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"YAAAAHUHUHOAAAAYYYY!!"(1)

Never before, not even after defeating Neji, had Naruto felt more exhilaration than now as he rocketed upward into the sky, eyes tearing and his mouth threatening to split in half from his grin. The wind pulled at his clothes as he spun through the air. 'This is great' could not possibly describe it.

"**Pay attention! Look around at the trees, see the pervert!"**

Naruto turned his attention to the space around him and saw Jiraiya perched on a tree, his mouth held open in shock as he saw Naruto blast up from the tree tops.

"Crap." Jiraiya quickly shuffled to his feet and attempted to begin dashing through the trees.

"No you DON'T!"

Naruto reared his arm back then thrust it forward, a purple chakra claw leaping off it at an amazing speed, slamming into the tree bark Jiraiya had just jumped off of.

"**Slingshot, boy, NOW!"**

Naruto pulled himself onto the tree, spun around it and pushed off the bark in the direction of Jiraiya.

"**Get a move on boy he's getting away!" **Kyuubi was once again being caught up in the thrill of the chase. **"Tear the forest apart if you need to!"**

Kyuubi's own an excitement and Naruto high off his trip into the air mixed as Naruto pulled out more of his own and Kyuubi's chakra at the same time. Boy and Fox roared together as 4 dark purple tails swayed behind the blonde's body.

Jiraiya chanced a look behind him and saw the beast that was once called crashing through the trees hot on his tail. He paled until he matched his hair, and then flipped so he was above Naruto as he shot by.

"Screw it, Summoning Jutsu!"

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Naruto paled as the giant bottom of the 'Food Cart Destroyer' Frog slammed into him from above, sending him crashing into the ground, and slowly into it.

"Okay.. agh.. Naruto…" Jiraiya sat against a tree panting, holding one hand to his bloody chest. All that jumping had reopened a few of his wounds. "You caught me. Sorry to put you down like that but I saw 4 tails so I wasn't sure who was in…control…"

"…."

Jiraiya paused as the huge bulk of the Frog shifted slightly, then slowly moved upward.

"**One step at a time."**

"_Yeah, I know."_

Naruto walked achingly slowly, the frog held high above his head, as five tails of the darkest purple chakra swayed behind him. He took one step toward Jiraiya, then another. He was soon standing only two feet away from the pervert, the highly confused frog still held high above him. He grinned savagely.

"_What's wrong perv, FOX got your tongue?"_

"…No, but there's a snake on your foot."

"_Huh?" _Naruto looked down, but saw no snake around his foot. _"Where's the snake?" _Naruto returned his gaze to where the sage was sitting.

Jiraiya was gone.

"_WHAT THE HELL?!"_

"**ARE YOU REALLY THAT NAÏVE!"**

Naruto's shouting sent him off balance and there was a small crunch as the frog fell atop Naruto once again.

"**I'm not healing that."**

_"Shut up."_

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(1) However you'd think to spell Goofy's laugh

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	3. Birth of Shukaku

Herooftimes: Sorry for the long wait

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Naruto was saved from a slow death by suffocation when the frog on top of him decided it didn't want a death on its hands and dispersed. The blond boy slowly crawled out of the depression in the earth he had been slowly crushed into for the past minute, complaining the whole time.

"Damn tricky pervert…JIRAIYA!" Naruto yelled

After waiting for a few minutes for a response that never came, Naruto slowly got himself to his feet, tripped, rose again, and began walking.

"**Where do you think you're going?"**

"Well staying here isn't helping anything is it?"

"**Jiraiya can find you when he needs you. You've got no destination in mind. I suggest we head for the Sand village."**

Naruto stopped and turned to Kyuubi in his head. "Sand Village? With Gaara? Why there?"

"**Simple… it will take the white haired one a longer time to recover enough to travel to the sands. There's some …training I need you to do without him hovering. That… and I believe my half-son and I have a few things to hash out."**

Naruto left the conscious world completely and dived into his mind, tripping once again and rolling to a stop in front of Kyuubi's gate.

"WHAT THE HELL?! You have a SON? But.. that means you and.. a girl did… uh…um…"

"**Feel free to mumble incoherently. I know no one has given you 'the talk' yet."**

Naruto declined to respond and simply glared at Kyuubi.

"Who, when and how?"

"**We don't have time for this. Jiraiya could catch up with us soon if we don't start moving."**

"Well I'm not moving till I know!"

"**You're going to put our lives at risk to hear a simple story, you idiot?"**

"So…" Naurto sat back and grinned "You better start fast then."

Kyuubi looked down at Naruto with annoyance. But the great fox knew Naruto held all the cards at the moment.

"**When I was younger…"**

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Flames licked the body of the fox as it jumped across the lands at an eye-tearing speed. The flames seemed to come from within the fox, but also looked as if they were attempting to consume it.

"**Don't go for your 8****th**** tail yet he said. Guess I should've listened."**

Kyuubi had just ripped through another roof in the amount of power he held, turning from a 7 tailed fox into an 8 tailed one. He was only one tail away from the dreaded nine tails that would be spoken of generations later. But as he had only gained his 7th tail a few months ago, so body was not ready for the surge of power he had recently been granted by absorbing the chakra his grandfather had split off from himself as a keepsake for Kyuubi's coming of age.

"**I gotta get some freaking RELEASE!"**

Kyuubi rolled over onto his back as red hot pain jolted his very bones. He raised himself unsteadily to his feet, groaning in pain as he felt an 8th tail beginning to sprout from his back. Suddenly Kyuubi's lips drew back in a harsh smile as he gained an idea.

"**HUMAN REALM HERE I COME!"**

Ripping a hole into the dimensions, Kyuubi pushed himself into the human world.

"**No one life here yet…should be fine to –"**

With a feeling not unlike throwing up, Kyuubi's body lurched and he yelled as tremendous demonic chakra was expelled from his entire body, frying any form of vegetation for miles, blasting them apart until the heat wind and pressure from the chakra explosion turned the once green fields into a desolate desert.

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"Wait …you MADE the Suna Desert? On accident?"

"**Unintended effect. I was simply looking for an uninhabited place to expel chakra."**

"But…since when did you care about having people safe?"

"**Time will change you, boy."**

"**Will that explosion, loads upon loads of expended demonic chakra was just floating around there, while I was unconscious, having blown myself one step to the left of Reality."**

"…What was there?"

"**Void. But it seemed some stupid priest or monk or whatever took it upon himself to cross the new desert to see how people on the other side of it were doing after the explosion."**

"He sucked up the excess chakra?"

"**Yes, he began to…wait. You're not smart enough to put that together. What the heck happened to you?"**

"I .. don't know." Naruto seemed worried now "Maybe that frog falling on me and using so much of your chakra did something to me…"

"**No great problem, it's not like your chakra control, brain power, or whatever 'skills' you have could get any worse."**

"HEY!" Naruto lunged forward towards the cage, a Rasengan already spinning in his hand.

"**Yes, it would be very wise to break the only barrier between you and the greatest Bijuu."**

Naruto stopped his charge inches from Kyuubi's cage and sat down angrily.

"Just finish the story!"

_Curse my needless banter with the boy, Jiraiya could be here soon…_** "He walked across the great desert, and his already large chakra from meditation and whatever else he did started mixing with the masterless chakra around him. Then the fool decided to meditate before sleeping."**

"**While meditating he called out his chakra and the demonic chakra around him immediately surged toward him, looking for a new host. It forced itself into him wherever it could, causing even more cuts and opening as it attacked him in a frenzy. He attempted to use his own chakra to fight off the threat…big mistake. Once inside him it attempted to heal the cuts and in doing so became a part of his skin, healed the small fractures in his bones and fused with them too."**

"…How painful would that be?"

"**He screamed loud and long enough to damage his throat, so the chakra flowed even there, past that and to his brain. It didn't help that this whole time he'd been kicking bunches of sand into his wounds, and when he felt all was lost he attempted to eat as much sand as he could and kill himself. **

"**The demonic chakra saw the sand as a threat, but wouldn't open the Priest's body to expel it, so instead it fused with it also, making it harmless, and also a part of the Priest."**

"Was he still conscious?"

"**No. But by the time he had regained consciousness, his body had been without food for weeks, and so to keep him from dying from starvation, the sand and chakra had changed his own organs."**

"**There was a little more time, a few more things after that, but there you have the birth of my 'son' Shukaku."**

Naruto started at the Kyuubi with a mixture of surprise, terror, and awe.

"**Now get running to SUNA!" **

Kyuubi puffed, and Naruto was blown back into the waking world.

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Herooftimes: Please Review


	4. A Strange Type of Door

Naruto paused as sand whirled around him in a violent wind. He shut his eyes to it and turned inward.

"How did I get out here so fast?"

"**You've been going for hours. I didn't want your whining so I had you take a …backseat for a little while."**

"What the heck? You can just do that?"

"**You've already weakened yourself from taking on so much of my chakra this fast, If I hadn't taken control you simply would've collapsed."**

Naruto was about to respond when he descended into a horrible fit of coughing and sneezing. It didn't help that the sand tried to shove itself down his throat, causing even _more _coughing.

"**Get up and get moving, you're sick."**

"..Sick? I can get sick?"

"**Long story short. I'm your immune system. But with your coils burned out from all that chakra earlier, using more of mine would simply send you into a screaming fit as you quite possibly bled from your eyes…an interesting mental picture yes, but counter-productive."**

Naruto huddled his jacket over his head and began a slow trudge in whatever direction he was facing, regretting leaving Jiraiya the entire time.

"What am I supposed to now? Do you even know which direction we're going?"

"**I'm going to take a wild guess and say sand doesn't naturally create sinkholes in a matter of seconds."**

"…What the-?"

At that moment the sinkhole decided to introduce itself.

* * *

In the darkness of the chamber beneath the sands, the only light came from two tiny.. little… eternally blazing pits of fire in the ground. A surprisingly young man sat on a wooden chair across from a crumpled mass of cloth went by the name of Naruto. He had a decrepit metal plate gauntlet covering his right hand, and a long hooded dark red jacket covered the clothes underneath. He seemed to be constantly muttering under his breath.

"Boy... wake up." The man sounded angry.

"…ugh…"

"Oh, I'll have none of that." The man quickly strode over to where Naruto lay and sent him a kick to the ribs.

"OW! Who the heck?!"

"**BE STILL! I've been listening - this man is not all there."**

"I'll tell you who." The man's glare was lost in the dark shadows of the chamber. "The guy whose door you just broke."

"…Huh?" Naruto was actually more lost than usual.

"That trap is for catching animals, so I can eat them. It's also my front door. They get off free for breaking it, 'cause I eat them. I could try to eat you, I suppose…but you'd probably resist."

"…There aren't any animals for miles." Naruto said calmy. He didn't want to get kicked again.

"My superiors told me that there was a legendary sand dragon named Isako out here. Are you calling them… LIARS?"

The fires in the darkened chamber grew enormous, and Naruto backpedaled until he hit the wall to get away from the oppressive heat. The man soon calmed.

"…Sorry for getting angry... It's just, this is the only real important mission I've ever been given, because my fire natured chakra doesn't mix too well with the sand around here. Though, I have gotten good at glass-making. Anyways, my nickname's Kiwf*."

"Like a kiwi?" Naruto asked

"…No." Kiwf said. " But I don't like my nickname, so call me..uh…Xan."

"But who gave you that Kiwf nickname?"

"I did." Xan said. "Why do you ask?"

"**If his fire ability is enough to create glass, he could be a useful shield. Bring him with you, and have him lead the way to Suna. Make up something about his mission being done."**

Naruto wasn't in a mood to argue with Kyuubi while tired and sick.

"But Xan, this works out perfectly! See, I was on my way to Suna to tell the …leader…"

"You mean the Kazekage?" Xan asked

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead. You know, Chuunin exams, Suna attacking Leaf and all that?"

"I've been here for longer than you know."

* * *

After a surprisingly short talk, Xan was leading Naruto up the glass stairs that began in the far back of the chamber and ended at the entrance to a tunnel. Xan walked in front of Naruto, lighting walled torches with a touch of his hand as they went past.

"How in the word are you doing that? " Naruto ssaid in awe, slowly dragging behind Xan."

"I just stuff that chakra paper stuff in the torches."

"**That paper is expensive…if he can use them like this, he might just be loaded. Naruto, I've got a … B rank mission for you. Find out more about him."**

_How in the world would you pay me? _Naruto thought

"**I'll let you keep what sanity you have left."**

_And you'll help me do that by making me travel with this guy?_

The Kyuubi chose to save face ad stay silent.

"So…" Naruto turned his attention back to the outside world "Xan, where did you get those…Xan?"

Naruto found himself standing alone, but he could faintly hear frenzied shouting.

"HAHA! I KNEW you were real, ISAKO!"

Naruto rushed towards Xan's voice.

* * *

Naruto ran out of the end of the tunnel, straight back into the blazing heat of the desert. But he didn't notice this, as there was something much more interesting in front of him.

"**I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's a sand dragon."**

The beast loomed over the tiny frame of Xan, half as tall as Shukaku had been, but that didn't make it any less impressive. It seemed to be made of sand, though there were small patches of glass like scales that could be seen all over it's body. As Naruto watched, it was still rising from the desert, changing from pure sand and gaining definition.

"**Ah, that's why he never found it. It's part of the desert, literally."**

_DRAGONS DON'T EXIST!_ Naruto screamed in his head

"**Well, if my chakra created Shukaku all those years ago, who knows what else it might have mutated? I Guess my presence woke it up…I'd go help the little pyro though. He's most likely going to die, and then the dragon will be after you." **Naruto sensed Kyuubi's eyes glowing in it's cage.** "Your coils have healed enough to allow me to fend off that sickness. I can't do much else yet. So get creative."**

Xan charged the dragon and Naruto tore across the sands in a run behind him.

Xan ran through some quick hand seals and exhaled a fireball that exploded at Isako's feet. The sand crystallized into glass as it burst apart, but simply bounced off the dragon's body.

Xan wasted no time fighting the dragon to a standstill at which point they would both release their best moves. He quickly shifted into high gear, shifting through seals and draining his chakra reserves.

Xan shouted happily. "Bombos: Thirteen Pillars!"

Thirteen pillars of flame surrounded Isako, close enough to singe the dragon. They moved even closer until it seemed like The great sand dragon was entrapped in a cage.

Xan feel to his knees, hands still caught in a seal.

"Explode!"

A cascade flames converged on Isako, drowing the dragon in fire. Not having fully formed it's hind legs yet, the dragon could do nothing but burn. It's anguished cries caused the color to leak from Xan's face, as he stared dumbfounded at his destruction.

The entire bottom half of the dragon had become glass. It seemed to be annoyed at its predicament, pushing with its forelegs to separate the glass half from the sand half.

_Kyuubi.. this isn't right. It's going to have a slow and painful death"_

"**What are you talking about? The moment it gets its sand half separated, it'll reform using the rest of the sand around here. If anything, that little stunt just sentenced the both of **_**you **_**to a slow and painful death.**

Naruto then realized that the 'anguished cries' he'd been hearing sounded more angry than pained. He ran up besides Xan.

"Xan, it's about to get up! We've got to run, do you want to be a hero, or do you want to live?!"

Xan paused for a second. " We'll I _think _I'd rather be a hero…"

"Well-"

Naruto's left arm jerked forward involuntarily and smacked Xan in the side of the head, knocking him out.

"…Huh?"

"**Sorry, can't STAND those hero types. I'm sorry; we're you in the middle of something?"**

"How do you expect me to escape while CARRYING him?!"

"**I don't. I expect you to shove him into that tunnel for his own safety, and get us out of here."**

Naruto grabbed Xan, and throwing the man over his should, rushed for the back of Isako.

"**What are you DOING?!"**

"Not listening to you!"

Naruto reached the part of the dragon where the glass met the sand, created a clone and directed a rasengan straight at the real sand beneath his feet. The orb of Chakra exploded, launching Naruto and Xan into the air around the dragon's back.

"Kyuubi, I need some Chakra, NOW!"

His eyes tinting purple, Naruto lashed out his right arm, a chakra claw leaping off the arm and attaching to the dragon. With a pulling motion, Naruto send himself and Xan cannoning onto the back of the dragon.

"…Guh, my shoulder…"

"**Dislocated, because you're JUST. THAT. STUPID."**

Naruto used his good arm to drag Xan to the base of the neck of the dragon. He grinned as he sent Xan a kick to the ribs to wake him up.

"Ouch…what's with all this sand?…did I leave my door open?" Xan looked around confused.

"You said you wanted to be a hero right Xan?" Naruto grinned through the pain wracking his arm. "Well, listen to me and I think you'll be able to do a bit better…"

* * *

Herooftimes: Sorry, if this wasn't funny…at all, it's been awhile. Luckily, theres that whole 'general/adventure' genre part of the story I can file this under.

Review, you've come this far!


	5. An awkward flight

Herooftimes: I forgot to say it last chapter, Xan's old nickname, Kiwf, stood for 'Kill it with fire.'

At Saturn-Jupiter's request, I'll do a little recap:

Chapter 1

When Naruto first releases the 4th tail, Kyuubi takes control, but in doing so the seal is damaged. Naruto and Kyuubi learn that if the seal breaks Naruto dies, but Kyuubi will die along with him. Naruto learns that there are actually 81 'levels' to Kyuubis' chakra, instead of nine. Jiraiya begins Naruto's training to endure Kyuubi's chakra, by having Naruto search for Jiraiya while holding the 3 tail form.

Chapter 2

After searching for awhile, Naruto becomes burned out by Kyuubi's chakra, converses with the Kyuubi, and they take to the skies in an attempt to find Jiraiya. Jiraiya crushes Naruto under a frog summon.

Chapter 3

Kyuubi asks Naruto to head for the Sand village, and tells him the story of how the Suna desert and Shukaku came to be

Chapter 4

Naruto continues heading for the sand village and falls into a giant man made traphole, meeting an eccentric young pyromancer inside. His ability with fire interests the Kyuubi, but before Kyuubi can use him for his own ends, Naruto and the man are attacked by something that shouldn't exist.

On with the story

• • •

"..A what?" Xan asked confused

"A Dragon Rider! You know, like in the stories?" Naruto yelled excitedly over the roar of the sand.

The boys fell flat as the sand dragon ripped itself from the glass around its base and lurched into the air. They stared in awe as torrents of sand leaped up from the desert and reformed the dragons missing limbs. After the dragon fully formed the torrents continued into the air, creating a sandstorm below it.

"Before today It was only on my teachers word that I even thought a dragon existed... now I'm supposed to ride one?"

"Well technically" Naruto said plainly "It'll be more like hanging on for our lives as we annoy it in a general direction. BUT I'll make sure the stories they write about us will have us riding it like a horse!"

"A …dragon riding hero" Xan had stars in his eyes "But how the heck do we steer it?"

Naruto grinned darkly "With fire, of course."

• • •

"Hold it steady" Naurto rasped, the sand in the air leaving his throat dry

Xan had been focusing chakra in between his palms, the power coming slowly after the amount he had spent attacking the dragon before. Naruto's plan was a simplistic one: If the dragon turned in a direction that wasn't Suna, it would get a large blast of fire scorching its face.

"**Do you even know which way is Suna? Or if the crazy one has enough chakra LEFT to keep this up till then?"**

"Didn't I say I wasn't listening to you!" Naruto yelled, now worried as he came to the full realization of just how lost he was. "Then again… always gotta be open to new ideas right?"

"**Honestly…" **Naruto gave a jerk as his arm snapped back into it's socket, and hunched over as red waves of chakra spilled out of his body, **"I think my worst punishment was not being sealed, but being sealed in someone as foolish as you."**

Now sporting two bubbling tails of chakra, Xan was quick to back as far away as possible from Naruto, still managing to hold his concentrated chakra. "What's going on with you!"

Naruto gave no word as he followed the silent cues from the Kyuubi, racing across the body of the sand dragon until he was directly upside down on Isako's belly. The three tails plunged into the body of the dragon and it gave a great cry from the pain. Naruto let himself swing freely from the belly of the beast, then raised his arms into sweeping slashes that left quickly resealed gouges across the dragon's stomach.

"_It'll go up higher to escape the pain right?"_

"**Yes, and from there we'll be able to tell where we are."**

"_We still need to steer… Kyuubi, before… in my fight with Sasuke, you were able to control the cloak independently of my body right?"_

"**Yes, but why?"**

Naruto concentrated his own chakra and a third tail burst from the darkened cloak of human and demon chakra. Leaving a bubbling shell of chakra behind for Kyuubi to control, the blond boy separated himself from the mass and plunged his way through the body of the dragon, still connected to the first shell by a thick line of chakra. He soon came out on the other side of the dragon, directly behind the fire user.

"_XAN!"_

The fire user turned and stared into the red slitted eyes of a Naruto covered in corrosive chakra. The day's events finally became too much for him as he passed out, sending his body tumbling off of the dragon.

"_Damn it!"_

Naruto extended a chakra arm in order to catch Xan, but it was knocked away by one of the arms from the chakra shell below.

"**Don't catch him! His clothes might be fire proof but I'd doubt they could handle the kind of chakra we're pushing out now."**

The figure of Xan fell farther until it disappeared underneath the sandstorm whipped up by the flying dragon.

Turning his despair into anger, Naruto growled and put his hands on either side of the hole through the dragon he had created, pulling the chakra shell he had left behind back into himself and splaying the three tails into the body on top of the dragon. He raised both of his hands to his side and the chakra cloak leapt off of them, latching onto the wings of the dragon.

"…**You know how to drive a manual?"**

"_Don't you mean fly manually?"_

The Kyuubi chuckled to itself at its own joke **"Yes… exactly."**

Through trial and error, the blond was soon able to figure out how to roughly control the movement of the objecting dragon. The concentration necessary to steer and subconscious repression from the Kyuubi made Naruto quickly forget about losing Xan.

The first awkward flight of Naruto Uzumaki had begun.

• • •

"Temari."

The wind mistress turned around abruptly to find her red-headed brother walking towards her. They weren't exactly the best of friens yet, but she could at least speak to Gaara now without constant fear of death.

"The coming sandstorm…there is something not natural about it." Gaara said simply. The entire village had geared up for the worst when they had noticed what they believed to be simply another sandstorm on the horizon. "Something about it is making Shukaku restless."

Now Temari became far more worried. After the events of the past Chuunin exam, Gaara had said that his biju had actually quieted down, nursing wounds and wounded pride after losing its battle with the giant frog. Such a reprieve from the constant haunting presence of Shukaku had only helped Gaara's relations with his siblings, but it seemed that relief was over.

"Perhaps…" Gaara's continued speaking snapped Temari out of her thoughts "I should go out to meet it. It's possible that I could redirect it with some effort."

"Why would you want to do that?" Temari was honestly surprised, while she had never doubted Gaara's powers before, he had never shown interest in attempting to stop a full sandstorm, either.

"For…" Pausing for a second Gaara seemed lost, searching for unfamiliar words "For…"

"For the good of the village?" Temari offered, brightening at the thought of Gaara having changed his view on the village's people so quickly.

"No… for fun."

Temari stared blankly at Gaara, who for the first time in his life made good use out of gaining sudden interest in his surroundings.

"You're going to face an unnatural sandstorm head on… and have fun with it?"

"Why not?" Gaara said as he turned to leave "Naruto Uzumaki did it too, after all"

• • •

Gaara was able to leave the village without incident and continued walking straight ahead, set on a collision course with the center of the storm. It was only when a shard of glass came flying out from the storm and grazed Gaara's armor of sand that he realized something was very, very wrong with Shukaku.

"The shield of sand isn't active…"

Forming the sphere of sand around himself, for the first time Gaara delved into his mind, searching for Shukaku without death on his mind. Coming upon his own mindscape, currently a wide desert, Gaara found a restless Shukaku, tossing and turning… in its sleep. The irony of the situation left Gaara staring at the whimpering biju for quite some time, both unsure if he should wake it and how to approach it when not facing a battle.

"…Shukaku. If you would listen, I'm here because…"

Gaara paused once he realized that the biju was truly and completely unaware of his prescence, murmuring something about 'the other'. The red head also noticed that half of te biju seemed to be constantly dissolving and reforming itself.

"Well then…" Gaara walked up to the beast, aiming for the part of it that was moving the least, it's tail. Pulling on the tail, sand began separating itself from the body of Shukaku and running up Gaara's arm. "I suppose I could make use of your chakra anyway…"

Gaara opened his eyes in the real world, as the sphere of sand formed back into his gourd. The feeling of Shukaku's chakra without the insane taint of Shukaku's mind itself was.. good. Gaara could feel his sand responding to even the smallest twitch of his fingers, and he knew he'd be able to handle far more sand than before with little difficulty.

Lifting a single finger and rising on a cloud of sand, Gaara felt excitement sparking in his heart. "Now, for that sandstorm…"

• • •

"**Kit."**

Naruto was down to a manageable two tails as he continued steering Isako, the sand village in view far away. He was feeling sort of.. off, but he just attributed that to his waning sickness.

"**Boy."**

"_Yeah, what?"_

"**What can you hear out of your left ear?"**

Naruto listened for a second _"Nothing, what should I be hearing?"_

"**Possibly the sandstorm raging around us. It seems like my chakra has finally burned you out… shouldn't have pushed it."**

Naruto was worried, creeping fear evident even in his thoughts _" So what do we do? What do I do?"_

"**We don't do anything. I cut you off for the next few days; you crash land this dragon, hopefully on something soft."**

Naruto lurched from exhaustion as the chakra left him, not even being able to maintain whatever part he had in the chakra cloak. He slumped over onto his side, his voice a bare whisper now. "Soft…like what?"

"**A Village."**

• • •

Gaara had been fighting to keep his balance as he flew straight into the center of the storm on his sand cloud. He had abandoned his armor of sand in favor using his chakras to speed through straight to the center of the storm, a wall of sand protecting him from the worst of the wind. Looking up, Gaara noticed a huge mass high above the rest of the sandstorm, but difficult to see through it.

"Is there another roaming biju with control over sand like me?" Gaara wondered. "If so... then we will see who is stronger."

Gaara used the swirling sands around himself and turned them to his will. He clapped his hands together, pressing the sand into a denser form, creating a ring of sand spikes. He sped upward and burst out of the top of the sandstorm, intent on catching whatever beast awaited by surprise.

"…"

Coming out of the storm, Gaara had burst out and assaulted a large… cloud of sand.

Which had just been exhaled by a far larger sand dragon that now flew on a collision course for Gaara.

"…_Ryūsa Bakuryū!"_

Forming a waterfall of sand made of multiple spikes, Gaara beat a hasty retreat from the dragon, wide-eyed.

"What IS that – ugh!" Gaara winced as he felt a pulse of pain from his seal, Shukaku acting up even more wildly now that he was closer to the dragon. He decided to ignore the biju in favor of facing the very real beast in front of him now.

The dragon send out a giant spinning ball of compressed air that Gaara dodged instead of taking head on. The red head formed a thin spear and sent it straight through the head of the dragon, but it simply absorbed the sand used for the attack.

The dragon roared and the swirling sand storm around the two fighters instead became a straight high wall of sand, encasing both within. With the amount of sand still left in the air, Gaara knew he was in his element, but his enemy was also.

They fought fast and hard, the dragon hurling simple hard packed clods and orbs of sand while Gaara created needles and spears to cut through to the dragon. Gaara's weapons would be absorbed into the dragon while the shots the dragon fired at Gaara were continually turned away at the last second, close enough to the red head for him to gain dominance over the sand. Their attacks continued clashing relentlessly until a large mass of sand split off from the main battle, and Gaara and the dragon both reached for control of it at the same time.

"Urk…" Gaara felt himself loosing control as the massive amount of chakra the dragon still had began beating his own. The dragon didn't wait for Gaara to finish as it suddenly expelled all of the sand weapons it had absorbed into its body from Gaara at the boy in a awe-inspiring hail of fire.

Gaara felt something he had not felt since his battle with Kimimaro…fear. Defending from the weapons would cause him to lose control of the sand mass, which the dragon could use to kill him anyway.

"**BOY! You! YES YOU!" **Gaara was pulled from the real world back into his desert of a mind. He lifted himself off the ground to find Shukaku awake and roaring wildly.

"**I take a nap and you're about to kill us? Murder HIM! Destroy him and absorb him! AIM FOR THE HEART!"**

Gaara looked at Shukaku in shock, as he had never heard the beast talk in complete sentences. Even though it was raging as it never had before, it seemed to actually have some small bit of sanity. "..Absorb him? How? Why?"

Gaara was pushed out of his mind as a rush of chakra washed over him and into his body. He was only able to catch part of what Shukaku said.

"**Because I must become…"**

• • •

Gaara snapped back to reality with new determination spurred on by gaining full use of Shukaku's chakra. He gazed over the hail of weaponry, releasing control over the mass of sand to the dragon. He raised both hands into a seal.

"…Stop."

A visible wave of chakra flowed out from Gaara's body freezing the weapons in place. Gaara leaped from his sand cloud perch and began racing across the weapons, jumping across them, heading straight for the dragon. As he patched each row of weapons, they flowed back into sand and began to mold into the shape of wings.

"Such a thing like you shouldn't exist…so I'll beat you with things just as non-existent in this desert." Gaara had reached the dragon by now and was able to disperse the sand mass enough that neither of them could use it. "My taijutsu skills…and falcons."

Leaping off of the last sand spear, Gaara charged forward, ready to make up for the hit that he had missed in his fight against Naruto.

"FALCON…" Gaara roared, "P – just kidding."

Using the giant sand falcon as a feint, Gaara dived under the sweeping rush of the sand dragon that had risen to meet the falcon, using his own personal sands to drill a hole deep into the body of the sand dragon where he believed it's heart should be. He was not disappointed as he came up a shinng blue orb of unbelievably dense chakra deep within the dragon.

"It's... brilliant." The light of the orb reflected in Gaara's eyes as he was drawn to the chakra like a moth. "Like a shining star…" In his strange attraction to the orb of chakra, Gaara unconsciously reached out and touched it. Blue wisps began separating themselves from the orb and traveling up Gaara arm, but instead of staying in his chakra pathways, they headed straight for his seal.

"It feels the same as Shukaku…it attacks just like him too. His insanity… his constant search for new stronger enemies and new blood…was he looking for this?"

The empty shell of the sand dragon began a slow descent with Gaara inside of it. He turned inward and found a different Shukaku looking at him. The body was the same… but his eyes were different.

"Why did you want the dragon's spirit so badly?" Gaara said, no longer feeling any fear of the beast inside of his body.

"**Because I wanted to become whole."**

Thus began the first real conversation between Gaara and Shukaku, with Gaara's body sleeping soundly as the sand shell of a dragon it was in careened for a crash landing.

Several feet above Gaara's sleeping body, another young jinchuuriki woke up.

• • •

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	6. A Meeting of Minds

Naruto spat hard, gritty sand out of his mouth as he woke up in one of the worst ways in his most recent memory. His body ached, and just trying to bring up any thought of movement seemed to make it hurt even more in response. He flipped onto his back and stared up at the sky, or rather the copious amounts of sand that blocked his view of it. The blonde boy sat up abruptly, causing a jolt of pain to run down his spine as he tried to make sense of where he was and why he was there.

"**Can you hear me now?"**

Naruto ignored the voice inside of his head for once, concentrating instead on trying to force his body into working condition. Just as he managed to push himself up, the sand would shift and he would find himself on the ground once again.

"**I can hear you trying to ignore me you know."**

Naruto glared at the sand as he failed to push himself off of it once more. He coughed, and more sand spilled out of his mouth. He was physically alone, hurt, and had a cold, rising annoyance towards everything that existed at the moment.

"**This is getting you nowhere."**

"I don't want to hear it, fox." The boy mumbled into the sand.

The injured boy eventually managed to get to his hands and feet, and began crawling his way in a random direction.

• • •

A red headed boy sat in the vast representation of his mind amid an ever quieting sandstorm. The being that towered over him seemed out of character, speaking and acting calm and collected. With such a change in his Biju, Gaara was more than interested in the story behind it.

"**You see… I was divided, body and soul. The body never really seemed to matter, since I could always create more out of sand, but I lost a part of my mind in that division. I suppose I passed that same emptiness onto you, constantly looking for something to fill the void I wasn't always aware was there."**

"So that sand dragon…"

"**Saying it was a part of me is misleading. We were…are a part of one greater being. I suppose it'll take time for our pieces to truly coalesce…you have no idea how hard it is to find a proper pronoun to describe myself at the moment."**

Seeing Shukaku's conversational shift from murderer to an erudite school teacher left Gaara… incredibly confused.

"So what does this mean for me?"

"**Oh, infinite power, dragon wings, control over all the elements… actually, no. It means little for you, but I suppose it's somewhat my fault you're sort of… self centered."**

Gaara wasn't sure how to deal with the feelings of annoyance he was dealing with at being called self-centered by a being inside him. Murderous anger he knew how to deal with, but not this.

"How does this change things between us?"

A giant claw of sand crashed down on Gaara and held him fast to the floor. The face of Shukaku peered down and met his eye with an all too familiar glint, and Gaara absentmindedly wondered if this fear was what other people felt while looking at him. Shukaku glared at him hard for a few moments, then softened.

**"Make no mistake, boy. I still ache for my own freedom, but I thank you for the aid you have done to me. Since your death is still mine, I will continue to aid you as best I can, and allow you sleep since it really doesn't matter either way for me. I will support you in battle, and I will lend you my chakra – but we are still far from friends."**

Gaara returned the glare with his own, and began pulling the sand to his own will. He pushed the claw of Shukaku away and rose on his own cloud of sand until he was eye level with the beast.

"Friends we may not be, but I will not take kindly to being talked down to."

**"You mean to fight me for my respect then?... Unfortunately, we have other matters to attend to. Your old enemy, Kyuubi's boy, is near."**

"Kyuubi's boy?" No one had actually informed Gaara of who Naruto contained.

**"The blond haired frog man we fought near Konoha. I can feel Kyuubi's chakra saturated into the sand, but the boy's is faint."**

Gaara spoke to his biju once more. "We will have to continue this conversation later then. Naruto is not my enemy, he is a friend. And he may just need my help."

The red head turned from the beast once more and strode out of his mindscape.

• • •

Gaara looked around, but he could see little more than the giant mounts of sand that made the body of the once great sand dragon. When he attempted to sift through it, he found it was just as easy to move as the sand within his own gourd.

As he lifted the fourth section of sand into the air, he head a shout as a human figure fell from the clods of sand to the ground below. Gaara was fast enough to make a platform to catch their fall before they met the unforgiving ground. That's not to say their fall was at all comfortable.

"…I hate sand, I hate Jiraiya, I hate gravity…" Naruto pushed his upper body up from the platform and looked around, catching Gaara's eye.

"…"

"…"

"…Gaara? What're you doing out here?"

"You're in Suna territory Naruto." The red head said as he strode forward. He tried to move the sand to leave Naruto on his feet, the boy collapsed to his knees the moment to support of the sand left him. "Are you hurt?"

"Yeah I…" Naruto tried to explain, but the exhaustion and pain was finally overwhelming him. "I…I'll tell you when I wake up."

Gaara was close enough that Naruto's collapse into unconsciousness this time left his face smacking directly into Gaara's stomach.

"I'll have to get him back to the village…" Gaara began creating another sand platform, but he was interrupted by the entirety of his sand armor cracking into pieces and falling off him at once. He stumbled as a bone deep exhaustion fell over him, dropping to a knee. His gourd shifted and crumbled to pieces as well, leaving it's sand spilled across the desert. He called to the sand with his will, but it barely responded. "Wh…what's going on?"

"**Saying that my becoming whole meant nothing for you wasn't strictly true. As I'm quickly trying to assimilate my chakra, it's likely causing problems in your own. I attempted to cut the flow from my well of chakra to yours, but it looks as if that's left you with no way to stave off the sleep your body has so desired these past years…Sleep now, you'll be better for it."**

Gaara gave no argument at all as he finally allowed himself the luxury of natural sleep for the first time in many years.

The two boys lay there sprawled out next to each other, sleep claiming them for the next several hours.

• • •

AN: This is quite short, yes. And yes, its been more than two years since I dusted off this story. I decided to go ahead and post a short new chapter instead of rewriting everything up until this point - that will come later. From here on, things should be more detailed, and chapter's longer. Sorry to have kept you waiting.


	7. Sleep does a sandstorm good

"…**which is why you the both of you will be thanking me later."**

"Huh, whaa?" Naruto sat up not knowing where he was, which was starting to become more common than actually knowing where he was.

"**Ah. It seems my estimation of when you'd wake up here was off. You've missed most of the important bits."**

Naruto had been doing this back and forth long enough to know when to just sit back and listen. "Can you just tell me what you did, and why I'm here please?"

Kyuubi was almost shocked that Naruto was being almost civil with him, but he supposed the boy's mental exhaustion had finally caught up with his physical. That, and with neither of them keen to die, they needed to be able to work together.

"**Long story short. Your body's now good to go because I shoved the excess chakra caught up in your organs into Gaara. Cleared up your system right quick, and with my regeneration having several hours to work on you, your chakra coils should be stronger than before."**

"Sounds…good. But how come you know Gaara's name? You didn't even bother to learn Neji's or Sasuke's!"

"**He's Shukaku's boy, of course I have to know his name. We Bijuu have standards. Rules to abide by."**

"…Wait seriously?"

"**I'm sure, but the only rule I ever bothered to remember was the third: Have a plan to kill everyone you meet."**

"…"

"**And I adhere to it…**_**religiously**_**."**

"Whatever you stupid fox! You haven't killed anyone in years and I'm gonna keep it that way."

The demon rushed forward, its nose bowling into the boy's stomach, sending him skidding across the ground.

"**You DARE pretend to have control over me? Let me have one more instant, one more solitary second with that fool teacher of yours and I will SHOW you…"**

The malicious atmosphere surrounding the beast suddenly evaporated. It's anger was replaced by an almost bored expression.

**It's sad I've been here so long that I'm responding in full to the taunts of a short teenage boy.** Kyuubi thought. **I've got to have him trusting me, not afraid of me for my plans to come to fruition.**

"**Forget about that." **The fox spoke up once more. **"Awaken, and focus on dealing with my chakra in more ways, especially those outside your body. Arrange a meeting with Gaara to practice with each of your chakras. You can help him gain control. Once you have done that, return to me."**

With a look, Naruto felt himself being lifted from his mind, and he didn't resist.

**…**

Temari was worried. After Gaara not returning from the sandstorm, she and Kankuro went out to look for him. Gaara had yet to gain many friends in the time since the chuunin exam, but many of the high ranking ninja were slowly becoming less afraid with him.

It hadn't been hard to find the area where Gaara had been, but it took a long time to find them in the sand dunes. Temari was lucky enough to come across them first, but she nearly died from panic when she noticed Gaara was asleep. She controlled herself however, and was surprised to find that blond Konoha boy lying near Gaara.

"Kankuro, is that really that kid?"

"…It looks like him." Kankuro finally said. "Do you think he fought Gaara? They look pretty beat up."

"But why is Gaara asleep?" At this point they were still taking no chances and were several feet away from the bodies of both of the boys. "More importantly, why is Gaara asleep and why aren't we dead?"

"Genjutsu maybe? But I've already tried canceling -"

At this point Naruto sat straight up with a loud yawn.

"Oh God!"

Temari whipped her fan around out of pure frightened instinct and sent a tornado of wind at the two boys.

Naruto looked at the incoming whirlwind in a daze, and was saved from further pain when a wall of sand coalesced in front of him. Gaara was awake once more.

Gaara didn't bother raising himself off the ground, only holding a hand out to create the wall. He dropped it and noticed the startled faces of his siblings.

"…Temari, Kankuro." His hand drifted to point toward his blond friend. "Naruto. Naruto" The hand drifted back to point toward his siblings "Temari and Kankuro. I'm going back to sleep."

He did just that.

Kankuro was amazed. "I'm seeing it Temari, but I don't believe it."

Temari however, was more focused on the conscious ninja in front of them.

"Care to explain what's going on…Naruto?"

"Well… you see…" Naruto began.

I've got no idea what's going on! Kyuubi help! Naruto thought.

"**Surely. Shift control to me and the execution will be swift and elegant."**

…Execution? Naruto thought.

"**Yes…*cough* the execution of my explanation."**

Yeah, on second thought, I think I've got this. Naruto finished.

"I've got absolutely no idea what's going on!" Naruto said brightly. "But uh…nice to see you guys again? Never took Gaara to be a heavy sleeper. Except, you know, that one time, but that was some kind of sleep genjutsu and… HEY!"

Naruto looked incredulously at Gaara. "He can do genjutsu! He's got to have lots of chakra like me because of Shukaku, but he can still do genjutsu! He's gotta teach me how to do that."

"…What's up with you kid?" Kankuro said concerning Naruto's rambling. The blone boy looked straight at him.

"I just got into a fight with a sand dragon which I'm pretty sure wasn't supposed to exist, and had to let this other guy fall to his death to save myself…and I dunno, I guess I'm just going to try to ignore all that for now. Can we head over to your village? I've got to talk to Gaara once he wakes up. Jinchuuku stuff, you know."

They both looked at the boy with surprised eyes. "You're a…which biju?"

"Oh, the Ky–"

"**Naruto. Just this once. Just this ONCE!"**

Fine. Naruto thought. He felt the Kyuubi's influence rush up, and he stepped aside for it.

Temari and Kankuro watched as the boy stopped talked mid sentence, then bowed his head. A harsh, screeching wind billowed out from the boy, turning hot just as a dark and menacing laugh shook the shoulder's of the blond boy's body. Red chakra joined the wind as 'Naruto' raised his head, rising from the ground with fangs clenched into a wide grin, and eyes burning with red power behind them. The boy locked gazes with them, and spoke.

"_**Pleasure to meet **__**you. Call me Kyuubi no Kitsune. The **__**greatest of all foxes, the earth shaker, the king of demons, the –"**_

The harsh atmosphere left abruptly as Kyuubi was shut back in his cage once more. Naruto smiled with his own softer grin and laid a hand behind his head.

"Sorry about that. He gets really long winded if I let him."

"**DAMN YOU!"**

"Uh, that's… that's okay." Temari said. She was actually used to feeling much darker things from Gaara. The presence had been oppressive…but it was like it was trying hard to be. Just that, no feelings of hatred or want to murder. "You can control it?"

"Well…not exactly. I mean, he doesn't really affect me as much as Gaara's does, so it's like he's not there most of the time."

"I'll buy that. Let's finish this conversation somewhere more comfortable." Kankuro offered.

They picked up the red haired boy between them, and began walking off to their village.

"Hey, come to think of it, has anyone seen Gaara's gourd?"

**…**

It had been almost twilight by the time the siblings and Naruto came back into the village. Naruto had reluctantly pocketed his headband on Temari's request, and a short conversation from her had the guards allowing Naruto inside. They, and everyone else they passed, were shocked to see Gaara asleep – most thought him dead at first glance and immediately searched the skies and noticed a distinct lack of raging Bijuu. Temari's story was that Gaara was gaining control over his beast and its murderous tendencies. Most were skeptical, but other's rejoiced.

Finding Naruto a bed was easy, since the siblings still lived in a win of the Kazekage's mansion. They all opted to move bed into a single room, so they would all be there when Gaara awoke once more – and as a precaution, since none of them really knew what was going on with him at all.

Gaara slept on unaware of it all, even as the remnants of Kyuubi's chakra in his system melded with and augmented his own personal store of chakra. While Gaara had never bothered to deal with elemental chakra or techniques before, the latent wind natured chakra within him from both his heritage as a Suna ninja and the bijuu within him, along with the addition of Kyuubi's chakra mixed with Naruto's began sparking his wind affinity in full force.

It was this moment that would change the name whispered by his enemies from Gaara of the Desert, to Gaara of the Sandstorm. But for now he slept a wonderful sleep, truly recuperating his physical and spiritual energies for the first time in a long time.

**…**

Gaara woke up with a jerk, used to having his awakening coincide with scenes of horrible carnage, before he realized where he was. Not in his regular room, but one of the ones in another part of the house. He quickly noted the other people in the room, and spent some time sitting up in a daze, looking over them. He didn't know how to feel, waking up. No screams for blood in his head, or heavy sand armor caking his body. His gourd wasn't in the room, and that was when Gaara realized it had likely dissolved.

He looked at his hands and tested his chakra, and he could tell that things were off. That wasn't good. Though he might have turned over a new leaf, Gaara knew he still had several enemies. Being uncertain of his powers for any stretch of time was unacceptable. If people realized the 'fearsome' Jinchuuriki was helpless –

"Oh, you're awake. Morning Gaara." Naruto interrupted the red-haired boy's thoughts from across the room.

"Naruto…" This was actually perfect. He could test himself without holding back. "I think I need to fight you."

**…**

It was some time before either of them was awake enough to even entertain the thought of sparring against each other; though if a battle between two jinchuuriki could ever be called that was up to interpretation. Temari wasn't sold on the idea, but for once she could actually see how uncomfortable and concerned Gaara was over his predicament. He wore his emotions outside just like Naruto, but that had never been a problem before…but then again, his emotions before had been limited to hate and more hate. Once it was decided, then set to spar an hour after breakfast. Kankurou dealt with Naruto while Gaara took Temari aside, asking her to write down and help him with something. Before long, it was time.

Gaara stood before Naruto without his gourd. He wasn't keen on having to travel back to where the sand dragon had been to find his most malleable sand, and he still needed to test what e could do with the more mundane sand around them. In his hands he clasped a paper written over with directions from Temari.

He put the paper away as Naruto walked onto their designated battlefield, on the outskirts of the village.

"Let's make this a two stage fight Naruto." Gaara smiled. Having Shukaku out of his head and nearly a day of sleep made him feel wondrous. Incredibly drowsy as well, but he was used to staving that off. That and he found he had his own personal excitement for battle. He felt a buzz like never before. He could feel that his own stores of chakra had increased, and he could guess that Shukaku's had as well.

Is this what everyone else feels like after sleeping? So…rejuvenated? So…Good? Gaara thought.

"Which is?"

"We start with just us, no biju. They'll come in later…" Gaara trailed off, looking like he was struggling with something.

"They'll come in later…." Naruto repeated.

"After…you lose?" Gaara said, looking slightly embarrassed.

There was silence between the four of them.

"Did…did you just trash talk me?" Naruto said.

"No? Yes…I think so."

Kankuro looked away. I've failed as a brother, he thought, if that's the best Gaara's got.

"Well you're on!" Shadow clones exploded into existence around Naruto as he charged forward.

Sand burst from the ground and circled around Gaara. For a second, he had been worried it wouldn't obey him, but he was amazed at how easily it burst forth. Still, he could tell he was using far more chakra than necessary. His control was off.

The clones took positions around Gaara, making their way past his swirling sand. Gaara made no movement as one charged him headlong with a fist raised, crashing into his shield of sand… except that it didn't.

No sand rose of its own accord to block Gaara's attack. The clone stumbled overextended, not expecting to have met no resistance, but Gaara's own shock left him unable to retaliate.

…**You said no bijuu, didn't you?** Shukaku's familiar voice drawled from inside his head. **That means no shield.**

Of course, Kyuubi hadn't bothered to pull back Naruto's healing, but no one had ever accused him of being a fair fighter.

The information worried Gaara deeply, but at least he knew his shield wasn't lost forever. Knowing that Shukau had pulled back his sand powers did blossom one wonderful thought within Gaara's head, however.

"I thought it was his…" Gaara whispered.

"What?" Naruto said, concentrating on forming a Rasengan with one of his other clones, as the rest stood at attention to distract Gaara.

"It's not his…" Gaara gave short laughs from happiness "My sand powers, they're not all his!"

Gaara looked straight at Naruto, a full blown grin on his face. It chilled Naruto more than he thought it would.

"This is MY power!" Sand exploded into motion at Gaara's call, one of Naruto's clone's peed it's pants, and the battle commenced in full force.

**…**

AN: Please Review. Tell me what you liked/didn't like and/or compare it to what you've liked/didn't like about other chapters. What about the chapter length? Would you want it longer? Or shorter like they've been before? Did anything need to be explained more?


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